My journey to a debt free life

Cherryfudge

That sounds like a good day out to me.  

Willowtree222

And me. Could you make your own chilli jam in the future? I’ve never tried anything like that but you seem to use it a lot.
x

Fizzy11

Morning OBL I’ve been following your journey for awhile and I’m really sorry your health is declining. I had a pension with Barclays which I didn’t know about until they wrote to me at 60. They were offering me £6 a week which considering I’d only paid in for around 18 months and worked 15 hours a week was probably ok but they then gave me the option of taking it in one lump sum. I was completely blown away by how much they offered me so don’t give up hope. My D has always bought everything in CS and last year I got a new beach bag from Joules complete with label and a brand new Indian cookery book. I found in one of them brand new jigsaws for little ones for £3. Nothing wrong with CS Christmas and actually it’s more the meaning of Christmas imo. 

Onebrokelady

Cherryfudge said:

That sounds like a good day out to me.  

Thanks it was a good day 😊

Onebrokelady

Willowtree222 said:

And me. Could you make your own chilli jam in the future? I’ve never tried anything like that but you seem to use it a lot.
x

I wouldn't have a clue about making my own. I've only started eating it beczausecits in quite a lot of the Gousto recipes. We are going through the cards now to try to recreate some of the meals we have tried. Maybe I will be brave and look into it 😀

Onebrokelady

Fizzy11 said:

Morning OBL I’ve been following your journey for awhile and I’m really sorry your health is declining. I had a pension with Barclays which I didn’t know about until they wrote to me at 60. They were offering me £6 a week which considering I’d only paid in for around 18 months and worked 15 hours a week was probably ok but they then gave me the option of taking it in one lump sum. I was completely blown away by how much they offered me so don’t give up hope. My D has always bought everything in CS and last year I got a new beach bag from Joules complete with label and a brand new Indian cookery book. I found in one of them brand new jigsaws for little ones for £3. Nothing wrong with CS Christmas and actually it’s more the meaning of Christmas imo. 

Hi, thanks for commenting 😊I still get surprised when someone says they read my diary 😀 it seems boring to me.

I haven't got any pensions hidden away anywhere. I left school and got a job in Mr T until I was 19 then I was pregnant with my first baby so I left and never went back. I ended up on benefits for several years until I eventually got my original job as a housekeeper at the hospital where I still work but I'm now a HCA. My current NHS pension has been running for just over 22 years because I didn't join the scheme when I first started working there.

I am looking forward to checking out the charity shops to see what I can pick up for Christmas 😊

Onebrokelady

I had a lovely shift at work today, it wasn't at all busy and was almost like it used to be pre pandemic 😊 

I am meeting DD1 tomorrow and we are now going to the beach. We were supposed to be going to the library but despite me checking that it was open and being told it was it appears that was wrong because it's closed 🙄 I don't normally go to the beach in the summer so it will be interesting. A bank holiday on a beach in tourist season is not my idea of a good day 😀 I will need chips at some point to cheer me up 😀

I am proud to say I remembered to check my meter readings yesterday and to send them in to my energy company, the bill is normally paid on the first so I will log in then and see how much I need to pay. I was paid on Friday so tomorrow evening I will be setting my budget for the month. I did a bulk order of pet supplies last month so need to look at what's left to see when I need to reorder, it shouldn't need to be done for a few weeks. I wrote the dates of when I opened everything on the calendar so I can monitor how long it lasts 

I am also now on holiday for two whole weeks 🎉🎉🎉🎉. I have Monday planned now then I have Tuesday and Wednesday free to do what ever I feel like, I've got dgs1 on Thursday all day and on Friday I am looking after my dgs and my dad, he can no longer be left on his own and my mum is going to get her nails done so I am sitting with him for a couple of hours, I will have to take dgs with me and hope dad is ok with it 🤷‍♀️Then I have Saturday and Sunday free to do whatever I like. DD2 is also off so we will probably do something together. The following week I am off on my own and would quite like to get lots of jobs done that have been put off due to me health but that depends on me feeling better at some point. Hopefully I will at least manage to get all the things I want to donate to the charity shop gone, I have a bag full of books to go but DD1 wants to have a look through them first so I willing get her to do that tomorrow the n they can go this week. I am back into decluttering mode now so will be methodically going through each room and having a clear out 😊 

foxgloves

Another potentially useful source of bargainaceous Christmas gifts can be church fundraising stalls, @OBL. I'm not a churchgoer but I do pop in for occasional events & have had some great finds from their fundraising stalls. For instance, I bought a set of fabulously stylish wine glasses in different jewel-like colours as we needed some, but I could easily have presented them in a basket (shopped from home) of tissue paper if I'd wanted to gift them. I think they were £1 each..Last year (same stall....of what my Mum would have called 'white elephant' or 'jumble'), I bought a set of springclip glass storage jars with blackboard type space for labelling. I kept them but could have gifted them filled with a selection of fun 1970s sweets (for B-in-L), coffee beans, bath bombs, home baked biscuits, craft items, seeds & plant labels, etc, etc. Those lovely jars were 50p each. There are treasures to be found out there for sure. Good hunting, @OBL.
The thing I most like about your diary is the strength of your character, which really comes across & if you lived anywhere near me, I'd defo be suggesting we meet up for a coffee. Your writing doesn't come across as boring at all.
F x

milann

I’m another who doesn’t think your diary is boring and think your strength of character has got you through an awful lot. I think  it would be worth contacting your NHS pension just to see how much you might get. I’d also ask how much it would be if you had to take early retirement through Ill health as it’s paid at an enhanced rate. I hadn’t paid mine anywhere near 22 years and for a fair bit of that was only working 16 hours a week. With the pension and ESA I’m £50 a week less than I was working (I was on a rubbish wage) Because Dh is taken into account, I don’t qualify for anything else. But you might as you’re on your own. It would definitely be worth getting in touch with your pension and maybe Citizens Advice. You’ve paid into the system for many years after all. You are genuinely struggling with a health condition.
Enjoy your time off work 👍

Onebrokelady

foxgloves said:

Another potentially useful source of bargainaceous Christmas gifts can be church fundraising stalls, @OBL. I'm not a churchgoer but I do pop in for occasional events & have had some great finds from their fundraising stalls. For instance, I bought a set of fabulously stylish wine glasses in different jewel-like colours as we needed some, but I could easily have presented them in a basket (shopped from home) of tissue paper if I'd wanted to gift them. I think they were £1 each..Last year (same stall....of what my Mum would have called 'white elephant' or 'jumble'), I bought a set of springclip glass storage jars with blackboard type space for labelling. I kept them but could have gifted them filled with a selection of fun 1970s sweets (for B-in-L), coffee beans, bath bombs, home baked biscuits, craft items, seeds & plant labels, etc, etc. Those lovely jars were 50p each. There are treasures to be found out there for sure. Good hunting, @OBL.
The thing I most like about your diary is the strength of your character, which really comes across & if you lived anywhere near me, I'd defo be suggesting we meet up for a coffee. Your writing doesn't come across as boring at all.
F x

Awwww thank you Foxgloves that's so kind 😊    I would definitely be up for coffee if I lived in your neck of the woods 😊 
Our local church has sales on quite often so that's a good idea, they advertise them in our local community page so I will keep and eye out